MyHeritage launched its on-line family tree platform within the early 2000s, and boasts over 92 million worldwide members. It launched its DNA service in 2016, and has used the service to assist reunite migrant households separated on the US/Mexico border and to assist adoptees discover their organic mother and father. It’s one of many three hottest DNA testing companies and is headquartered in Israel.
MyHeritage doesn’t share your DNA information or outcomes with third events (aside from its chosen gene sequencing lab, with out which you wouldn’t have the ability to get any outcomes), however its voluntary knowledgeable consent coverage does allow it to make use of aggregated information for scientific analysis. You may delete your DNA information at any time, and that deletion is everlasting.
Right now’s finest DNA take a look at offers:
23andMe Ancestry + Traits…
MyHeritage says it can by no means promote or licence DNA samples, outcomes or experiences to anyone with out express consent and won’t present the knowledge to insurance coverage firms beneath any circumstances.
Value and testing sorts
There are two choices right here. The usual DNA package is £75 (about $90 / AU$140) plus transport, and provides you ethnicity experiences and the power to seek for DNA matches in MyHeritage’s large database, however no well being data. MyHeritage usually prices you to contact potential kinfolk, nevertheless it’s free to contact your DNA matches.
The mixed Well being and Ancestry Package provides details about your genetic dangers and provider standing, and prices £179 (about $220 / AU$330) plus transport.
Whichever model you go for, some instruments nonetheless require more cash. For instance AutoClusters (which allows you to search for shared ancestors) requires a subscription. MyHeritage typically provides reductions on its kits, so preserve an eye fixed out for particular offers.
MyHeritage’s DNA package arrives shortly, however outcomes take a number of weeks (Picture credit score: MyHeritage)
Testing and postage
The MyHeritage DNA package is straightforward and properly packaged, with swabs in your cheeks and containers to place them in. We received ours in early April, registered its distinctive serial quantity on-line so MyHeritage is aware of it’s from us, despatched it off (when you’re within the UK you must pay the postage) and waited.
On the very finish of Could we received a notification that there was an issue with our pattern: MyHeritage must know your beginning intercourse for its DNA processing, however its web site registration asks in your gender, which isn’t essentially the identical factor (it isn’t in your reviewer).
We corrected the misunderstanding and our information was prepared in early June. We then upgraded to the complete genetic well being screening for £104 (about $130, AU$). That used the identical DNA pattern and outcomes have been accessible in August.
MyHeritage reveals you the place your DNA markers are probably to return from, based mostly on its membership (Picture credit score: MyHeritage)
Outcomes and dashboard
MyHeritage provides you 4 tabs of data when it has processed your DNA. There’s the overview, which as you’d anticipate provides you a hen’s-eye view of your outcomes; the ethnicity estimate, which tells you the place your ancestors probably got here from; your DNA matches, which particulars the opposite MyHeritage customers you might be associated to; and instruments.
That final one allows you to evaluate chromosomes together with your DNA matches to assist establish widespread ancestors, and it additionally consists of hyperlinks to premium DNA visualizations that require a further subscription.
MyHeritage doesn’t cost you to contact your DNA matches. It emails when new matches are discovered (Picture credit score: MyHeritage)
MyHeritage’s well being reporting gives details about your genetic dangers of circumstances reminiscent of cancers (particularly these linked with BRCA1 and a pair of, reminiscent of breast most cancers and ovarian most cancers), Crohn’s illness, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. It additionally analyses your chance of being a provider for genetic circumstances that you simply would possibly go on to your youngsters. You may decide to not be informed about degenerative circumstances for which there’s not at present a remedy. within the US, the genetic well being experiences require a doctor’s order.
We expect it’s essential to grasp the scope and limits of the knowledge it might present. Genetic testing doesn’t offer you a dying sentence or a get out of jail free card: the experiences measure threat, not certainty. Simply since you’re genetically predisposed to, say, power obstructive pulmonary illness (COPD) doesn’t imply you’ll get it, nevertheless it does imply that heavy smoking is more likely to be much more harmful for you than for anybody else.
The positioning does a great job of explaining what threat actually means, and that any screening is restricted (Picture credit score: MyHeritage)
MyHeritage does a great job of placing this data in context, so for instance when it screens for dangers of lung most cancers it rightly factors out that smoking is way more of a priority than any genetic marker.
Our outcomes informed us that we had barely elevated dangers of liver illness, lung most cancers and power obstructive pulmonary illness. If we hadn’t given up smoking already which may have been sufficient to make us stop. Now, we’re simply extra anxious in regards to the injury we’ve already performed.
Verdict
MyHeritage’s ancestry screening is efficient and fascinating – we weren’t shocked to have Viking DNA, however we didn’t know we have been part-Spanish too – nevertheless it’s of restricted curiosity when you don’t need to hint your loved ones tree.
As a service, MyHeritage is spectacular. Nevertheless, we’re in two minds in regards to the genetic well being experiences. On the one hand data is energy, so for instance discovering we have been genetically extra prone to lung most cancers may need helped us stop smoking. However what if the information had been actually alarming, reminiscent of a really excessive threat of breast most cancers? That’s the identical information that moved Angelina Jolie to have her breasts eliminated.
Most cancers charities strongly advise towards such screening for under-18s and for individuals who don’t have a household historical past of most cancers. In addition they don’t advocate that at-risk folks endure genetic screening with out having help in place. If there’s a historical past of most cancers in your loved ones we predict it’s sensible to talk to your GP or healthcare supplier earlier than contemplating genetic screening.
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